The preceding is a description of ancient Egyptian embalming as given by Herodotus, and has been the subject of numerous commentations, discussions and researches. It is almost a positive fact that Herodotus has omitted desiccation, and that it naturally took place during the time consecrated to preparation. From the mummies examined it is believed now that the body was first salted for seventy days, then dried, and that it was not until after this desiccation that the resinous and balsamic substances were applied. A simple inspection of the mummies is sufficient to confirm this opinion and besides what use would have been these resinous matters, with which the alkali of the natrum would soon form a soapy mass, which the lotions would have carried off, at least in great part? It is much more reasonable to suppose that these balsamic and resinous substances were not applied to the bodies until after they were withdrawn from the natrum. All the ancients agree, in saying that the Egyptians made use of the various aromatics to embalm the dead; that they employed for the rich myrrh, aloes, canella, and cassia lignea; and for the poor, the cedria, bitumen, and natrum. The natrum was a mixture of carbonate, sulphate, and muriate of soda. It was a fixed alkali, which acted after the manner of quicklime; despoiling the bodies of their lymphatic, and greasy fluids, leaving only the fibrous and solid parts. The odoriferous resins and bitumen not only preserved from destruction, but also kept at a distance the worms and beetles which devour dead bodies. The embalmers, after having washed the bodies with palm wine, and having filled them with odoriferous resins or bitumen, they place them in stoves, where by means of convenient heat these resinous substances united intimately with the bodies, and these arrive in a very little time to that state of perfect preservation which we find them at the present day. This operation of which no historian has spoken, was, without doubt, the principle and most important part of their embalming. CHAPTER II. EMBALMING FROM EGYPTIANS DOWN TO CIVIL WAR. Here facts are almost entirely wanting and the history of the art we are studying, can only be followed in the recitals of historians, to control whose veracity we have no longer those monuments which Egypt offers us in such great numbers. Among the Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, and all modern nations, we see the honors of embalming accorded to Kings, Princes and men of distinction, but no tomb that has been opened, has rendered a single mummy so perfect, as those which we admire among the Egyptians.